While I've always had a place with a garden since a kid, I really grew crazy for gardening when I moved out to my own place and my landlord gave me a plot in his yard. That first year I grew a few herbs and zucchini, as well as a few tomatoes. When I learned the tomatoes I had picked up wouldn't give me seed for next year, that's when I fell down the rabbit hold of heirloom and OP varieties and seed saving.

In 2007 I started the Populuxe Seed Bank, after I had amassed a large collection of tomatoes and thought to myself "well, now what?". What could I do with some of these varieties I had acquired? What's the good of me just growing them? So I decided to make a concerted effort with the varieties I had in stock to grow out, and share as many of these varieties as I could.